After nearly 40 starts and 200 innings of high-quality pitching at Double-A Birmingham over the last three seasons, Riley Gowens finally got his first taste of Triple-A in the Charlotte bullpen. The less said about his performance in this particular game the better, but it's still upward mobility for a guy who'd been on the wrong end of the Charlotte rotation's logjam.
According to Dylan Barnas at FutureSox, two Birmingham teammates will be joining him: Rikuu Nishida and Ryan Galanie.
After reaching base three more times on Thursday, Nishida will leave a .405 OBP over 137 games at Double-A spread out over three seasons. He still has only one homer to his name over 273 professional games, and between the 20-grade power and the lack of standout defense at second base and left field, there isn't much reason to think his ceiling extends much higher, but he still deserves the chance to test it.
Galanie's promotion might be more related to the fact that Jason Matthews, a 29-year-old utility infielder with a career .587 OPS, is Charlotte's only healthy non-catching right-handed hitter. He's a career .261/.328/.382 hitter at Double-A, which would be fine were he a utility infielder in his own right. When that production comes at first base, it's a little harder to lean on the baseball merits rather than pure need as the primary angle.
Jacksonville 5, Charlotte 3
- Jacob Gonzalez went 1-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Jarred Kelenic singled, walked, struck out twice and stole a base.
- Hagen Smith: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 39 of 59 pitches for strikes.
- Riley Gowens' long-awaited Triple-A debut: 1.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 15 of 26 pitches for strikes.
Notes:
*The Statcast feed didn't deliver pitch info, so there isn't hard data on Smith's pitch mix or how he held his velocity. He got through the first three innings on 28 pitches however, and got 15 whiffs on 31 swings.
Birmingham 7, Rocket City 4
- Rikuu Nishida went 1-for-3 with two walks and a stolen base.
- Braden Montgomery doubled, singled twice, walked and struck out.
- Samuel Zavala singled, walked and struck out thrice.
- Jeral Perez was 0-for-5 with two strikeotus.
- Connor McCullough: 3 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 28 of 48 pitches for strikes.
Winston-Salem 11, Asheville 8
- Caleb Bonemer went 0-for-2 with two walks, an HBP and a stolen base.
- Colby Shelton was 2-for-4 with a homer, double, walk, strikeout and stolen base.
- Anthony DePino went 0-for-3 with two walks.
Kannapolis 9, Myrtle Beach 4
- Jaden Fauske doubled, singled, walked twice and struck out once.
- Billy Carlson was 2-for-4 with a double, walk and strikeout.
- Javier Mogollón went 2-for-4 with a triple and an HBP.
- Truman Pauley: 4 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 5 K, 31 of 67 pitches for strikes.
